Lightening Online

Yesterday I mentioned I made shortbread for our children’s teachers as end of year/Christmas gifts.  It’s a bit of a tradition in this household that each year I make a large batch of shortbread to use for gifts and also as part of our Christmas yummies for ourselves (and whoever we’re sharing Christmas with).

It can actually be a bit of a trial some years finding a day that’s not too hot (we’re in summer here in Australia) in order to crank the oven up.  But it’s worth it.  What surprised me when I first started making these was how cheap they work out to make in comparison to how expensive shortbread is to buy.

 So, if you’re looking for a frugal gift for someone that’s sure to “wow”, considering making something like this.

LIGHTENING’S SHORTBREAD

250g butter (real butter not margarine)

125g castor sugar

300g plain flour

175g arrowroot

pinch salt

Allow butter to soften to room temperature.  Cream butter and sugar together (try not to eat too much of the yummy sweet buttery mixture).  Sift in arrowroot.  Add salt.  Slowly mix together and add enough plain flour for the mixture to form a firmish dough.  You may not need ALL of the flour and in some instances you may need a little more.  Flour can vary in how dry it is - older flours need more moisture.  Form into a ball and place in a covered bowl in the fridge (or wrap in plastic wrap).  Make sure you disguise your dough or your husband will keep pilfering bits of it until there is none left to cook!!!!

When mixture has become firm, roll out and cut into desired shapes with a cookie cutter.  I have a small star cookie cutter which is just perfect for these (I find a small cookie gives them a more decadent look).  The easiest way I find to roll out the dough is using a sheet of baking paper on top of the dough which prevents the roller from sticking to the dough (saves you having to shake flour all over the roller every 5 seconds too).

Bake slowly in a moderately slow oven (around 160C) for around 20 minutes or until the shortbread turns a pale golden colour.  While still warm, drop shapes into a bowl of castor sugar, turning so that they coat on all sides.  Cool on a rack.

Some more notes:

* arrowroot is a fine flour.  If you can’t get hold of this you could try substituting with an alternative fine flour.  I used half arrowroot and half cornflour yesterday (wanted a double batch and couldn’t find the rest of my arrowroot) and they taste no different to me.

* I usually make a double mix and use a single 500g packet of butter (that would be equivalent to a pound for those of you overseas).

* salt is the magic ingredient so DON’T leave it out. 

* if you don’t have time for all the rolling, cutting and dipping in castor sugar, you can make this mix up in one or two circle dishes, bake and then cut into wedges while still warm.

Conversions and explanations for those not in Australia:

* plain flour is simply flour with no raising agents in it (we have plain flour and self raising flour as our most common baking flours here)

* castor sugar is more finely ground than regular sugar (still granular - not a powder - but the granules are much smaller)

* 175g is approximately 6.2 ounces or 0.38 pounds

* 300g is approximately 10.5 ounces or 0.66 pounds

* 250g is 0.5 pounds (therefore doubling to use 500g is approximately 1 pound)

* 160C is 320F

Conversions were made using online conversion.

ENJOY!   (I need a smiley with a little santa hat on!)

Acknowledgement: This recipe was originally a Tonia Todman recipe that I’ve tweeked to make it how I like it.  I *think* I’ve made enough changes to the original that I can now claim it as my own.  Feel free to pass it around….. recipes are made for sharing!   Of course, a link back here is always appreciated.

I actually feel like a bit of a fraud posting on reducing the grocery budget at this time of year. I tend to find myself a little tempted and waylaid by all the fancy goodies the stores have out. LOL. I get a bit *too* festive and out the window go all my good intentions.

Anyway, I will plow on with what we did in order to reduce our grocery budget and more than likely it’ll be a good reminder to myself of what needs to happen.

If you haven’t yet read the first 3 posts in this series or would like to refresh your memory, you can find them here:

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part One
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Two
Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part Three

Now last week I think I promised to start giving you some actual suggestions on ways to reduce the grocery budget. What I want to write about today may not seem like a proper tip but in a way it’s a really BIG tip that covers many categories. I want to talk about needs vs wants and my experience has been that acknowledging the difference between the 2 can make quite a big difference to the bottom line at the checkout.

This can actually be quite a confronting topic. Partly because the definition of a “need” vs a “want” can be quite a subjective and controversial subject. But mostly because I believe in western societies we have lost touch with reality when it comes to what we really NEED. (My apologies to anyone reading that isn’t residing in a western society - I can’t comment on your situation so you’ll need to make up your own minds here).

Now don’t panic on me here. I am not suggesting here that you *SHOULD* reduce your grocery spending to bare bones physical needs. What I am suggesting though is that we all need to take a good hard look at WHAT we buy and WHY and begin to recognise more just how blessed we are.

As human beings, we really hate to think of ourselves as being deprived. If we’re feeling deprived, the temptation is to go out and spend more money in an effort to prove to ourselves that we’re not “deprived”. Then of course, we no longer have that money, something has to give somewhere else and in the end we become more “deprived” than when we first started. It’s one of those vicious cycles that we really want to avoid if at all possible.

So I found that I needed to reduce our grocery spending without us feeling deprived (to avoid an unecessary spending circle). And let’s face it, how many of us have really EVER been truly deprived? The great thing about understanding how blessed we truly are is that it can help with reducing spending across all of the budget categories (not simply food).

Understanding the difference between needs and wants was one major way that we accomplished reducing our grocery spending without feeling deprived. My current spending of $100 a week is not even close to being a “bare bones, only what we need” budget. I purchase PLENTY of wants as well. Like I said, I’m not necessarily asking you to not purchase ANY wants. Just identify them and be realistic about what you’re choosing to do. Be real about calling a want, a want.

Another way in which our family worked on this was to put up pictures of our sponsored children and some other projects we have supported on our family room wall. Every time we come in our back door, we have a visual reminder to us of how much we really do have. It has been a very effective strategy for us in increasing our thankfulness and awareness of how many things in our life are wants rather than needs. And how many people in our world struggle on a daily basis just to meet their basic needs.

Please don’t think this is about guilt. I don’t believe in giving out of guilt. To me that is the same as obligation (see my post yesterday for my feelings on giving out of obligation ). It’s about awareness. And it’s a great way to encourage contentment. Contentment is a hard emotion to grab hold of, but when you’re there - it truly is one of the most worthwhile feelings you could ever experience. I’m sure if you could bottle it, you’d make a small fortune. LOL.

So that’s my suggestion for the next stage in reducing your grocery budget. Go through your shopping trolley (or supermarket docket) and identify how much of what you are spending is on needs and how much is on wants. Start to identify how blessed you really are and see if it makes a difference in how you view your shopping trolley and what kinds of things you put in it.

Now on occasion I have mentioned in my posts a website called Simple Savings. You can join their free newsletter at their website. They also offer a paid section to their website. I mostly tend to avoid websites where you need to pay in order to get information. It seems almost counter productive to frugality to me. And there are plenty of websites that will offer great ideas for free. For some reason I decided to pay the membership fees for this particular one. I think because they have a money back guarantee with their membership. I’m actually really glad I did. It gives you access to a vault but the most valuable part of it I have discovered in recent years is the forum where members get to discuss ideas on how to save money and support one another in all kinds of ways. Membership fees are $47 for the first year and then $17 to renew each year after that. The reason I am mentioning them now is that they have a sale on until 11pm Sunday 18th (Australian time - I’m assuming EDST but not sure) for $35. So if you’ve been contemplating taking out a membership, now is a great time to do so. My apologies to those non-Australian readers. This is an Australian website and may not be of as much interest to you (I’m sure you’d be welcome to join though if you wanted to).

If you don’t wish to purchase a membership, I’d still recommend you sign yourself up for their free newsletters with great tips. After all, you can’t go wrong with free. Here is a link to the website:

(Disclaimer: This is an affiliate link. There is an explanation of how affiliate links work in my sidebar. My comments however, have no bearing on the fact that it is an affiliate link. If you are concerned about this, go directly to their website http://www.simplesavings.com.au/ rather than via the link above.)

Over the coming weeks I want to work my way through the categories I listed in my original post on this topic. Non Food, Fruit & Veg, Meat, General Groceries and Treats (have I covered them all?) Does anyone have a preference for which category you’d like me to start with?

A list of other Frugal Friday participants can be found at
Biblical Womanhood.

This is the third post I have written in a series about how we reduced our grocery spending. If you haven’t already had a chance to read the first two, or would like to review them, you can find them here:

Reducing the Grocery Budget - Part One

So, we’re up to part 3 and we’ve yet to really touch on the big “B” word – the budget. How do you decide what a realistic budget is for your own unique situation?

Well you START with what you’re currently spending. That’s one of the reasons WHY it is so important that you KNOW what you’re currently spending. Because that is your starting point for your new grocery budget. THEN you start to play the grocery budget limbo. Now, I’m pretty sure I read about this idea at http://www.cindysporch.net/. Unfortunately I cannot find a place on her website that refers to this exactly. Nonetheless it’s a website that is well worth having a read when you get the time. She has lots of great ideas that I have found helpful in my quest for frugality and home organization (yes, it definitely is an ONGOING learning process lol).

The grocery budget limbo is quite an easy game to play. Now I’m assuming you all know how to play limbo? You know that game where you have a broom handle or similar held up nice and high and you all take turns going under it without touching either the handle or the floor (and without bending forwards). If you break any of those conditions, you’re out and the game continues with each round the broom handle being lowered slightly.

So the grocery budget limbo works much the same way. The goal is to lower your spending a little bit each week/fortnight/month. How much you’d like to lower it by each time is completely up to you. You can choose a percentage or a dollar amount. And yes, it can be $1 a week if that’s what you’d like. If there are just 1 or 2 of you and you already have a reasonably tight budget, $1 might well be the most appropriate starting place.

If you have a family or feel that you spend plenty on your groceries, I would suggest starting with a nice round figure like $5 or $10. You can get more adventurous than that if you’d like but my experience has been that if I take smaller baby-steps, I’m more likely to make changes that will LAST. Biting off too much at once can lead to getting overwhelmed, frustrated and ultimately giving up and resorting to “whatever I spend I spend”.

To give you an idea using my own figures. It has taken me 3 years to move from spending $140 per week to spending $100. Under ordinary circumstances (ie. if I wasn’t trying to reduce our grocery budget) we increase our grocery budget each year by 5%. This has been to allow for both increasing food prices and our growing family (growing in both number, from 2 people to 5 people and also in appetite as our 3 “little people” grow into “bigger people”). So in essence, our spending has decreased over that 3 year period from what *would* be $160 per week down to $100 per week.

I guess I’m sharing these figures to encourage you that it can take a while to really see changes in your grocery spending. I haven’t spent the past 3 years completely focused on reducing our grocery spending either. I prefer to challenge myself for a short time and then have a break from focusing too much on the figures. I still prefer to record all my spending all of the time - I like the security of *knowing* where our money has gone. However, if I were always focusing on getting our grocery bill lower, I think I would find that too boring. It works for me to focus on it for a time and then give myself a bit of a break. The breaks also help me to see if the changes I’ve made have become “habits” (and therefore stick even when I’m not specifically trying) or whether things blow out as soon as I’m not watching carefully.

I have found that tracking our spending has been the most significant change we’ve made to managing our finances since we chose to take the path of more frugality and a simpler lifestyle. There is more information about how I do this in my Tracking Spending post that I wrote a little while ago. Basically I do it by starting with my “budgetted” amount and subtracting anything I spend from this so that I always know how much I have left in a given category at any time. You can achieve a similar thing with using cash and some kind of bag or envelope system as well (as long as someone doesn’t move cash from one spot to another…..).

So, back to the “how low can you go” game/concept. How do you know when it’s time to stop trying to lower the bar? Best not to keep going until you fall flat on your back. I think it’s helpful at this point if you can understand a little of your own personality here. With my budget amounts, I prefer to allow a little bit MORE than what we *really* need. I personally find that if I have overspent on our budget, I’m more likely to throw the towel in and spend more. All the time that I’m comfortably under budget, I seem to find it easier to spend less.

Some people have a tendency to spend every last cent so if they allowed a “buffer” amount in their budget, they would always spend that. If you’re that kind of person, adding a buffer amount into your budget is only going to encourage you to spend more.

Don’t be afraid to have a bit of a play around to find what works for YOU. There is no perfect system out there that suits every single person. There is no “magic” figure out there for the “perfect” grocery budget. Take some time to just observe what is happening with your spending and how that makes you feel, react and so on. The same applies to whether you use cash, credit card (that is paid in full - I’m not advocating credit for groceries if you can help it), debit card and so on. We could debate for hours on whether or not you’ll spend more using one method or another. The only way you can really find out what works for YOU is to try a few different ways and see what happens.

One thing about budgeting in general that I have found really hard to get my head around is allowing some flexibility. When I decide what our budget will be for various categories, I usually do so for a 12 month period and during that time things can change. I’m not so good at dealing with change. I much prefer things to stay the same. One way I do get around this is by allowing some “buffer” in my grocery budget. Like I said before, that will work for some and might not work so well for others. Just be aware that you need *some* flexibility when it comes to budgets (without giving yourself permission to just spend whatever you feel like! LOL).

What you really want to avoid as much as possible is frustrating yourself. If you feel like you’re somehow “failing” in your attempts, it’s more likely that you’ll give up. That’s what we want to avoid. If you expect to be able to decide on a budget without allowing any flexibility along the way, there is a real danger of that happening.

My DS has been busy this week playing with items that I’ve bought in preparation for his 4th birthday party. The party is still about a month away and the items are just sitting in the box waiting. That might sound very organised to some but with shops so far away from us, I HAVE to be prepared ahead of time.

Watching him playing with this stuff has been quite interesting and thought provoking. We’re not talking mega exciting items here. A tablecloth, some party hats, loot bags, a box of tissues, a couple of bags of lollies (okay they are exciting)… He keeps getting them out of the box and looking at them, *knowing* that they’re for his party. *Knowing* that he has a party to look forward to.

Now he has started to create games using these items. Yesterday he got them all out and used them to build himself a “cubby” by lining them up next to each other in a circle around himself (amazing imagination and creativity that kids have). What really struck me though was the extra VALUE I was getting out of these items. Not only were they going to serve their purpose at his actual birthday party, but they’ve already provided hours of entertainment for him (I’m keeping my fingers crossed he doesn’t damage them in the meantime lol). It’s almost like getting “2 for the price of 1″. LOL.

I think that delayed gratification can work like that too. There is value in the “looking forward” to something that we miss out on when we purchase what we want straight away. We live in a “want it and want it right now” world and I think we’re missing out on something when we are like that. We miss out on the enjoyment of thinking, planning, saving and looking forward to an event or purchase. Those things ADD value to how we’re spending our money.

In contrast, to have it NOW we not only miss out on the added value, we also SUBTRACT value from the purchase. It’s not a lot of fun having to pay for something AFTER the event. So that begins to become a burden and SUBTRACTS value from our purchase. Add onto that any interest payments and the overall cost has risen - again reducing the value/fulfilment vs $$ spent equation.

I’m the kind of person that likes to get as much value for my $$ as possible. So I’m actually feeling quite chuffed that DS is getting so much value out of my small purchases. Each time he gets these things out to play with (which are still in their packets by the way), he’s actually increasing the value per $$ I’ve spent.

This is part 2 in a series I’m writing on how I reduced our grocery budget. If you haven’t already seen it, you might like to begin with part one.

Reducing the Grocery Budget-Part One

How did we go with keeping track of what we spent this week? Any major surprises, pleasant or otherwise?

I want to give you a couple of warnings this week (okay, well 3 actually which I guess is 1 more than a “couple” but you get the idea right?).

1. Be careful that you’re NOT reducing your grocery spending by simply eating out of your cupboard and pantry without replacing it. You might keep your spending low for a few weeks but you won’t have made any long term changes. I know when it’s all new and exciting you want to see results STRAIGHT AWAY. Just be aware that reducing the grocery spending is a LONG term project. It has taken me 3 years to get to the point I’m at now. On the other hand, don’t be too discouraged for now if your spending doesn’t go down straight away. The most important thing right now is that you KNOW what you’re spending on groceries so that we have something to work from.

Now, using on your reserves/stocks/whatever you want to call it is NOT a bad thing in itself. If you’re a chronic hoarder like me, it could actually be a GOOD thing. It’s just important to realise that you may not have actually reduced your spending all that much - instead you’re making use of money spent in the past. Of course, if you’re a chronic hoarder like me then you may also find that what you spend on groceries is actually *too much* which gives you room to move down a little without too much hardship.

I found when I first started out doing this that my grocery spending went down for a short time (because I was using up on stores), then it went back up again and I wondered what I was doing wrong. Then for a while it stayed the same - and that can be very frustrating. Rising food prices and growing children can really put a dent in our efforts to reduce the grocery spending. Understand that keeping your spending the same IS actually reducing your grocery budget. I found for a while that all my efforts were doing was keeping up with inflation. In other words, as I learnt new ways to trim the grocery budget, those savings were eaten up by price increases.

As I continued to learn new ways to cut my spending and developed new habits, eventually my efforts started to show. My savings started to outweigh those price increases and the spending gradually started to come down.

2. Beware the news articles blaring “food prices to increase”. I *hate* these kinds of reports. What do they really do to help the consumer? In my opinion, nothing. It gives supermarkets some leeway to increase prices without consumer backlash AND it causes people to spend unnecessarily. If you *expect* your grocery spending to go up - believe me, it will!!! To me spending is like an untrained puppy. Let it off it’s leash and who knows where it might end up.

Yes, price increases are a fact of life. Yes, the drought *has* to have *some* effect on our prices. BUT, I think if we were to look back through history at the changing grocery store trolley. I think we would see a lot MORE than simply “a loaf of bread has gone from 10c to $10″ type scenario. PART of the increase in grocery spending has to do with WHAT is in the trolley - not simply inflation, effects of drought and so on.

So, allow *some* leeway in your budget and expectations of what it is going to cost to feed your family. But be aware that “food prices are on the rise” isn’t an excuse to simply cut loose and spend more money.

3. There is a HUGE temptation when you’re trying to cut your grocery spending, to want to compare what you’re spending with what everyone else is spending. I know because I’ve been there done that many times. It’s not that is doesn’t have *some* merit in giving you an idea on what is *possible*. It’s just that it is very hard to compare apples with apples. Everyone’s situation is different. Things like amounts of food consumed, whether or not they have a separate take away budget, do they eat at grandparents house once a week, do they have an Aldi, do they live on a farm and get very cheap lamb….. The variations as so endless that it really is hard to make an accurate comparison.

If you feel the need to *compete* (as many of us seem to lol), then compete with yourself. And compete AGAINST the grocery stores. I once read a great article about grocery shopping being a game. Unfortunately I can’t remember where I read it or who wrote it so I can’t give them appropriate credit. Instead, I’ll just steal their idea, paraphrase it and write it here so you can all think I’m an absolute genius. LOL. No-one gets a choice as to whether or not they’d like to play the game. If you EVER buy anything, then you’re already a player whether you like it or not. It’s quite a simple game really. You keep money in your pocket and you WIN. You spend all you’ve got and then some and the grocery store WINS. So next time you’re doing the grocery shopping, make use of all that competitive energy and KEEP some of your money.

Having said all that, I am now going to give you my grocery spending figures for the month of October. LOL.

My total spend for October ended up being $472.73. With 5 Wednesdays (my usual shopping day) in October, I needed to keep it under $500 in order to maintain my $100 a week average spend. So on the surface it looks like I’ve done well this month. But I’ve chosen this month to make a few faux-par’s, just for educational purposes of course. ROFLOL. Not really, it was fluke but it sounds good, right?

Bear in mind that I have been tracking and analysing my grocery spending for 3 years now (does that make me sound like an analy-retentive, obsessive-compulsive, has no life looney-toon?????) so before I even looked at my figures I could tell you a few things about our current position:

* I’ve overspent on treats (made evident by the fact that my jeans are too tight at the moment)
* I bought very little meat and what I did buy was “chuck in the oven cos you can’t be bothered cooking” crap (for a very good reason of course - DH is busy with harvest or he would be if the weather were right).
* Fruit and veg spending will be up a little because I’ve bought fresh pineapple (twice), strawberries and grapes (both not really “in season” quite yet), more than normal amount of frozen veg (see comment about “can’t be bothered cooking” above) and my fridge is currently still full of fruit and veg.
* I can’t have done *too* badly because well, there IS food in the cupboard, fridge and freezer.

So, let’s look at the nitty gritty’s of my spending for October:

Fruit & Veg - $118.08 That’s good. Up on what I’ve spent some months but still well below budget and I *know* we’ve been eating a fair bit of fruit and veg. Gotta love those cheaper fruit and veg stalls (when you can get to them). We have started to eat more out of the vegie garden so maybe that’s starting to show a little in the spending. Now I just need to make some choices about whether I *want* those savings to be eaten up by buying a few of the more expensive items (a very valid choice as long as it is a CHOICE and not just something happening that I’m not paying attention to) or do I want those savings in my pocket.

General - $297.31 As I said in my last post, I no longer track meat separately but I did have a quick look through my receipts and I *think* I spent just over $40 on meat. Which means this figure is a little higher than I would like it to be for the month. We’ve been using on our stockpile of meats and there isn’t really anything left in this category to cover that.

Treats - $38.33 Well up on what I usually spend and definitely overbudget.

Non-Food $15.73 Most of that was toilet paper. LOL. No, we don’t spend $15 a month on toilet paper but I do stock up when it’s on special and it just so happens there were a couple of specials this month.

Now for any of you “maths scholars” out there (do any maths “people” actually *read* blogs? wave if you do)…. my figures don’t add up. There is a $3.28 *gap* cos I spent $3.28 from my hospitality category. I wasn’t going to admit that as I thought it made me look really “inhospitable” to spend such a measly amount. LOL. But then the perfectionist in me couldn’t let it go in case *someone* happened to notice.

So, have you had a look at your spending figures? Do they reflect where you want your money to go or is there some tweaking that could be done? This week, keep writing down what you’re spending on groceries (yeah, I know last week I said you only had to do it for 1 tiny little week….I lied, okay? You still only have to do it for 1 week…..just 1 week at a time. ).

What are you thinking right now? Will, she hurry up and get on with revealling the *secret formula*? Or at least start making suggestions on how I can buy $500 worth of food with just $50. LOL. (no, that aint gonna happen).

Okay - here’s the “secret formula” (or at least *part* of it). When you build a house you start by preparing a good foundation. If you don’t take the time to build a good foundation, at the first sign of stormy weather, you might find yourself in a little bit of trouble. Building a “you beaut” house without first preparing a firm and solid foundation is really not a wise idea.

Dealing with something like the grocery budget is the same. I could give you a whiz bang list of ideas on how to get more for your money. But if we don’t start by taking the time to build a good, solid foundation, at the first sign of stormy weather, your grocery budget may well fall in a sodden heap.

Next Friday I want to talk about how to figure out the “right” budget for your groceries. Until then, happy shopping (and eating) everyone. LOL. Don’t forget to keep recording what you’re spending…..I promise you it’ll all be worth it in the end. At least I hope it will………..

Every now and then I mention the group “Frugal Aussies” when I’m talking about my journey toward a more frugal lifestyle. They were a HUGE influence in helping me work our finances so that we could buy a home WITHOUT me having to go back to work. In saying that, I’m not advocating that all women NEED to be stay at home mums. The thing is, that’s what I REALLY wanted to be able to do and they helped me to achieve that.

We’re just about sharing ideas with each other and supporting one another along the road to getting more value for our $$$. It’s a yahoo group and so FREE to join. None of us are “experts”. We’re just a group of friends with a common goal. Our ideas vary a lot so you can at times get some interesting discussion happening.

If you’re interested in joining us, you can find this group here:

Frugal Aussies

I know some of my readers are also on that group. You might want to add a little “hi” or make a comment about how you find the group to give other readers an idea of what it is like. I do allow anonymous comments (although it is nice if you place your name or initials or a nickname at the end of your comment) so you don’t have to be a member of blogger in order to leave a comment here. Just click on “post a comment” and another window should pop up where you can do that.

I will be back soon (ish) to post about this week’s electricity challenge results.

I like to use Epsom Salts in the bath when I have one. Apart from being good for your skin, you absorb the Magnesium and Sulphate through the skin. I seem to need more magnesium than I’m getting from my diet so it seems like a nice simple way to get it into my system. The sulphate is supposed to help with ridding the system of toxins. I’m no expert when it comes to this kind of thing but I figure anything that *might* help without a risk of being harmful is worth a go. I also tend to chuck it in the kids bath. They all suffer from dry skin (was excema when they were younger but has improved to the level of dry skin) and the Epsom Salts in the bath seems to really help with that.

I’d heard the cheapest place to buy Epsom Salts was a horse supply place so when I had the chance of being near one, we went in to ask about them. I thought I was doing the right thing asking for Magnesium Sulphate when I went in to this place that hardly looked like a shop at all (and was behind a scrap yard of all places!). All I got was a blank look from the guy behind the counter. Eventually he asked me if it was the same as Epsom Salts. LOL. Next time I’ll just ask for Epsom Salts. Anyway, it cost me $2.50 kg. Last time I purchased a 1kg box from Woolworths it cost me $5.71 so it’s quite a significant savings.

Are you wondering how all this relates to Science at Home yet? LOL. I’m getting there. On Sunday I had a bath using these Epsom Salts. I was in a lot of pain and couldn’t keep painkillers down so I figured a soak in the tub might help - as well as help with not getting dehydrated. Because I had a 5kg bag of Epsom Salts I decanted some into a glass jar.

Yesterday when DS got home from school, he asked me what the white stuff in the jar was. Not expecting it to mean anything to him, I told him that it was Epsom Salts. Turns out he DOES know about Epsom Salts. I think this 9 year old knows a LOT of stuff that I have no idea he knows.

This term he’s been involved in a program called “Challenge”. It’s designed for kids who find regular work reasonably easy and challenges them in other ways. So far I’ve been really impressed with the program (it has a fantastic teacher running it who has a gifted child of her own so she seems to really understand them). And DS seems to really love it.

Now he’s quite excited to discover that we have Epsom Salts at home and wants to show me an experiment they did with an egg at school. You add Epsom Salts to the water and a fresh egg that sinks to the bottom, will float instead. I asked him if he knew why that was. He said it was to do with hard vs soft water. Adding the Epsom Salts to the water makes it harder and therefore stronger and able to hold the egg up. So there you have it - I learnt something new. My understanding of hard water is limited to how it affects how much washing powder you need to use! LOL. If you live in an area where there are a lot of minerals in the water, you need to use more washing powder to get the same results. If you use something like rainwater which is very low in minerals, you need to use less washing powder. So I guess with Magnesium being a mineral (I have no idea about the sulphate part), by adding it to rainwater, you do indeed make the water “harder”. What I didn’t know was that “hard” water means it is stronger.

It’s nice to know he’s having fun and learning some new things at school. Next he wants to show me how putting an egg into vinegar with make the shell go soft. Should be interesting.

Well we’re now at the completion of our first week of the electricity challenge.

The figures look great. Our average daily usage has dropped from 18.45 to 15.68 and average daily hot water usage has dropped from 3.8 to 2.6.

Unfortunately, we were also away for 2 days last week. LOL. So that would account for the drop in usage.

The kids came with me this morning to see where the electricity meter was and how I read it which was great (they were actually ready for school early - amazing!).

In my mind, this challenge is as much about raising our awareness of not wasting electricity as anything and I think it’ll take a while before the kids form new habits of turning lights off and opening their curtains etc. I’m hoping by filling in our form each week, it’ll serve as a regular reminder to them (without me specifically nagging them).

At this stage I’ve set our form up to run the challenge for 10 weeks. So we’ll see what happens over that time frame.

For the form I used a basic table in Word format with the headings running across the top line:

Date : Last week : Today : Week’s Usage : Average Daily Usage : Last Week Hot Water : Today Hot Water : Week’s Usage : Average Daily Usage

It would be so wonderful if we *could* get our average daily usage down to around the 15kWh per day. Not sure how realistic that is. Whatever improvements we make will be good though.

This is my Tuesday post. I have to post it Monday night but it is *meant* to be my post for Tuesday. So if the date says Monday, you’ll just have to pretend. LOL.

Recently a topic was started on the Simple Living network encouraging people to share 10 things that they do to stay frugal. She was in particular looking for those that perhaps were “less common or obvious”.

I thought it was a great topic for discussion so I’ve copied my own response here:

“Great thread. I think even the really “obvious” ones are still new to someone at some time. I know only about 3 years ago I was one of those “someone’s”.

1. Tracking our spending has to be the biggest one for us in terms of how much difference it has made to our spending.

2. Having goals for the “why’s” of frugality.

3. Putting a debt chart up on our office wall as a visual reminder of what we’re trying to achieve (that’s finished now so I need a new visual reminder).

4. Having some pictures of our sponsored children on our family room wall as a constant reminder of how much we truly do have.

5. Regular decluttering. I find I’m less inclined to buy things when I’m in declutter mode.

6. Being part of a forum like this where there is regular encouragement, inspiration and like minded people.

7. Becoming more aware of the damage consumerism is doing to our environment - I find money alone isn’t always a good motivator but something like the environment helps keep me on track.

8. Budgetting a small amount for “treats” and having that in cash so that we never really feel deprived and know if we really want something we can. Now that we give ourselves spending money I can understand why the kids always want to spend my money and not their own - it’s kind of nice to hold onto. LOL.

9. Menu planning - seems to cut down both our grocery bill AND our take away bill.

10. Knowing prices - with groceries, clothing etc. Taking time to shop around, waiting for sales etc.

Wow - I’m actually amazed that I came up with 10. I thought I’d only have a couple to share.”

So, now it’s over to you. What 10 things do you do to stay frugal?

I’ve been busy making pies this morning. My 9 year old was wanting me to make *real* pies this time. My first attempt was chicken and vegetable pies (which were yum in my opinion but not so yum according to the kids) and my second attempt was steak and mushroom (which went down slightly better with the kids). So today I’ve been making *real* pies with mince and gravy.

Hopefully they won’t notice that I’ve added TVP and red lentils to the mixture. LOL. I actually made up the mix in the crockpot yesterday. Today was making the pastry and rolling it out and assembling the pies. It’s a bit time consuming but I don’t really mind. To me it’s worth it to know what has gone into my pies.

This time I used bought mince but from now on I’m thinking of making my own mince. I bought a large beef roast on sale recently and chopped it up and put it into my food processor and it made lovely looking mince. The smell almost put me off meat for life but it’s nice to be confident of what we’re eating. I do have a couple of packets of bought mince that need using though so one of those went in the pie filling.

Here’s a picture of my “pile of pies”:

Like all good bloggers, I hid the ones that didn’t look quite as good on the bottom of the pile. LOL. I don’t know why I get so hung up on perfection. After all, there is something so clinical about food that all looks *exactly* the same isn’t there. Here’s a slightly more close up view of my pies:

I’m trying to work out how much they cost to make. Most of my figures are approximate/guestimates.

For the filling:

2 cups TVP - 80c

1 cup red lentils - 30c

574g mince - 3.44

4 Tbsp gravy powder - 20c

2 Tbsp cornflour - 5c

hearty beef soup sachet (I didn’t have any beef stock) - 25c

1 Tbsp tomato paste - 20c

shallots - from the garden, cost negligible

salt & pepper - cost negligible

water - free

Total $4.99

I used just over half the mixture (froze the rest for another time) so approx $2.50 or slightly more.

Pastry:

250g butter - $1.10

2 3/4 cups plain flour - 30c

2 3/4 cups SR flour - 30c

Total for pastry: $1.70

Total cost for 20 pies: $4.20 so 21c each. Bargain!

If you want to make up the pastry you add 1 cup hot to butter and mix until butter dissolves. Then mix the lot together with the flour (I use a dough hook on my Kenwood). Then I shove it in the fridge to cool down a bit to make rolling out easier.

I made a discovery today with the pastry too. With using up the scraps, instead of trying to squish them together in a ball and then roll out again (which is hard as the pastry gets tough), I just overlapped all the rolled out bits and rolled them together. Was much quicker and easier and they seemed to stick together alright (just don’t use too much flour on your board the first time round).

I can’t vouch for how my filling recipe (if you can call it that) tastes as I haven’t tasted it yet. DH did a taste test last night and told me it tasted nice so fingers crossed it passes the family test at tea tonight. We’re having meat pies, chips and salad for tea tonight. It’s fake take away night tonight.

I think I must have been bitten by the cooking bug these past 2 days. Yesterday I made a big pot of tomato and vegetable soup (having some for lunch right now in fact). Also made an experimental batch of crumpets. Added more raising agents to try and get a lighter crumpet. I did succeed in a lighter crumpet but had very few holes so I’m still going to experiment with the recipe a little more. I also made the pie filling yesterday. Today I have made the pies and a batch of yoghurt as well as some spreadable butter (butter and olive oil whizzed together).

I’m looking forward to a nice quiet afternoon this afternoon!